


Trading Places

by WaywardWyvern



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Gen, Species Swap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-23
Updated: 2013-11-23
Packaged: 2018-01-02 10:58:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1055970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaywardWyvern/pseuds/WaywardWyvern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Korra was wrong when she said she wasn't able to separate Unalaq and Vaatu; the separation just didn't quite go as as it should have. A very human Vaatu washes ashore a few miles away with a familiar-looking dark spirit beside him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trading Places

**Author's Note:**

> An idea that got stuck in my head as I was writing chapter 2 of Obsession and I just had to write it. I'm not sure if I'll continue or if it was just a one-time thing, but I hope you'll enjoy either way.

Vaatu lay on the sand, hot sun washing over him. Once in a while a wave would crash over his body and cool him down. He was weak and any attempt at moving was futile, as if someone had draped something heavy over him. He was ashamed at his weakness, but at the same time satisfied at the fact that Korra and Raava hadn’t managed to obliterate he and Unalaq from existence, as he assumed she was trying to do.

He didn’t realize all the extra baggage that came with inhabiting a human body until he actually fused with one. He could feel the itchy sand against his skin, and staring directly at the sun made his eyes water. He needed Unalaq to wake up so they could take a stronger form again when they regained enough energy. Vaatu didn’t like being in a plain, human body – it was so painfully _vulnerable_.

_Unalaq_ , he thought, _Korra has failed to destroy us. You need to wake up._

But as he closed his eyes and concentrated he realized he couldn’t sense Unalaq’s mind at all. They were so completely fused that their thoughts had been pretty much in sync before Korra attacked, and while it didn’t surprise him that their defeat knocked them out of that (as a spirit, Vaatu was much more durable than Unalaq and would obviously recover first) it began to worry him that he couldn’t sense any other presence at all, not even an unconscious reaction to that ‘pain’ thing humans always got so worked up about, which he assumed the unpleasant throbbing sensation in his joints was.

It was possible that Unalaq’s spirit couldn’t handle the combined forces of Korra and Raava and was destroyed, leaving Vaatu the sole inhabitant of his body. He could deal with that – while Unalaq’s inner darkness had granted him some amount of extra strength, the form he could take by combining this body and his spirit form was much more powerful than his spirit form alone. He’d still have access to Unalaq’s waterbending as well, and that bloodbending he’d be hearing so much about didn’t seem that difficult.

He finally regained enough energy to push himself up into a sitting position (stupid human muscles and their capacity for exhaustion). The first thing he noticed was that his clothes had changed: he wasn’t wearing the same heavy winter robes Unalaq had on before they fused, which he was thankful for because in this weather that would be awfully hot and this silly human body might have complications from that much heat. Instead, he was wearing a much lighter garment in a deep red color that barely covered him at all. The leggings were more like a loincloth, and the top had such a low v-neck that his entire chest was exposed. The second thing he noticed was that, while he still felt weak, he felt a certain strength he hadn’t felt in Unalaq’s body before. While a very powerful bender, Unalaq’s physical strength always seemed somewhat lacking, so he was surprised at how muscular this body actually was.

He turned over on his stomach, still not strong enough to walk, and crawled on his elbows, trying to get off this abrasive sand and into the shade of the nearby trees. As he crawled he noticed a strange, dark lump on the beach a bit away from where he had washed up. It was half submerged and difficult to tell what it was, but if one of his dark spirit minions had washed up on shore with him it would make things a lot more convenient. This body would be hungry soon and he needed someone to fetch some food for it.

As he got closer, he began to make out the true form of the spirit, which was…not unlike his own spirit form had been. He was certain that he and Raava had been the only ones to take such forms, but this spirit was a dark blue in color with a purple pattern – a pattern that _definitely_ belonged to him and Raava alone – across its body.

“…Vaatu?” he heard Unalaq’s voice say quietly, “Vaatu, are you there?”

_Oh, you’re awake_ , Vaatu thought, _Your presence is weak, I can’t even feel you._

“Hello?” he heard Unalaq say again, and this time became conscious of the fact that the voice was not echoing within his own mind as it should be, but coming from an outside source.

He looked down at the unmoving spirit. “Oh, no,” he said out loud, “Oh, no, no, no, no, _no_.”

\---

Unalaq had been lying motionless for a long time, mostly because he couldn’t figure out how to move. He couldn’t even blink, but staring up at the bright sun didn’t seem to affect him, and while he was certain it should be quite hot out the temperature wasn’t unpleasant. He was somewhat conscious of the waves washing over him, but neither that nor the sandy beach were much of a bother.

It was hours before he heard someone, or something, moving towards him. He was aware that he and Vaatu were defeated, but couldn’t find a way to reach the spirit anymore. For a while he thought he might be in the spirit world, but it didn’t look right. He felt weakness, but not the same exhaustion and fatigue he was used to, more of a…strange feeling of being drained of power, like a spiritual wound. It really bothered him that he was completely incapable of moving.

Somehow he managed to speak, and he _heard_ himself speak, although he didn’t feel his mouth moving along with his words. Whoever was there with him didn’t respond until he called out again, after which he started saying ‘no’ over and over again in a voice Unalaq definitely recognized as Vaatu’s.

“Vaatu? I know we’ve been defeated but it seems we’re both alright.” Unalaq said.

“Speak for yourself!” Vaatu said, the shock and adrenaline finally giving him strength to get back on his own two legs ( _his_ own two legs, he shuddered at the thought, it was becoming more and more clear that this was _his_ own body and not Unalaq’s, something that caused him no end of disgust).

Unalaq found himself looking up at a strange human he’d never seen before, speaking in a voice that was a lot like Vaatu’s. “I’m sorry, I seem to have confused you for someone else. Where am I?” he said.

“You haven’t mistaken me for anyone,” Vaatu said, “I _am_ Vaatu.”

“How?” Unalaq said, “I wasn’t aware that you could take human form on your own.”

“I _can’t_ ,” Vaatu grumbled.

“Then what’s going on?” Unalaq said.

“Perhaps this will explain a thing or two,” Vaatu said, picking Unalaq up (which wasn’t difficult, as in such a weakened state he was only about half the size of an average human) and turning him to face the ocean.

Unalaq saw two reflections in the water: The strange human who called himself Vaatu and, in his hands, a dark spirit that looked very similar to Vaatu’s true form, albeit with different coloration. Colors that he himself had favored in clothing choices in the past. He definitely felt Vaatu’s hands around him, and in the reflection, Vaatu’s hands were clenching the spirit. He could put two and two together, although he was still in shock.

“…That’s me?” he said, weakly.

“Oh, don’t sound so distraught about it!” Vaatu said, putting him down, “Look what happened to _me_!”

Unalaq fell down to the ground like a fallen leaf, still completely limp.

“Stop moping,” Vaatu said.

“I’m not,” Unalaq said.

“You…” something clicked in Vaatu’s brain, “You don’t know how to move, do you?”

“No,” Unalaq said, “I’ve been trying for hours.”

“How do I explain this…” Vaatu said, pacing back and forth with his hand resting on his chin. Humans were so simple: move the muscle, move the human. Spirits were a bit more complicated.

“Don’t try to move as you normally would. You don’t have to rely on muscles and brain impulses or anything like that anymore,” Vaatu said, “Don’t overthink it. Just will yourself to move, and you will.”

Unalaq found it somewhat unbelievable that mere thought could move him when all the effort he’d been expending in the last few hours hadn’t, but he decided to trust Vaatu and at least try. He stopped trying to exert effort into moving limbs he no longer had and just relaxed for a moment, putting himself into a meditative state.

As he did, he was surprised to find that he was suddenly more conscious of his new body (or, well, new spirit) and how it worked. Of course trying to move his arms and legs didn’t do anything; he didn’t have arms and legs anymore. He lifted himself off the ground and placed himself in the closest thing he could conceptualize as a sitting position next to Vaatu. Meditation was something he had always done to get more in touch with his own spiritual self, _of course_ it would be the natural state of mind for something that was just a spirit. He felt silly for not thinking of that before.

As he sat he felt a sudden rush within him and was no longer looking up at Vaatu, but staring him directly in the eyes (or, what seemed to be directly in the eyes, as Unalaq didn’t really have eyes anymore). While still only a fraction of the size Vaatu was normally in his spirit form, Unalaq’s meditative state had allowed him to regain some of the power he’d lost when he was defeated.

“Don’t get cocky,” Vaatu said, “We still have to find a way to fix this.”

Unalaq thought about that for a moment, before taking to the skies and swooping back down towards Vaatu at full speed. Vaatu was hit right in the chest and sent flying off into a nearby tree. He was dizzy for a few moments and stood up, whole body aching. So _that’s_ why humans hated pain so much.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Vaatu yelled as Unalaq floated slowly towards him.

“I thought I would fuse with you and that would fix it,” Unalaq said.

“How long have you been a spirit for?” Vaatu said.

“A few hours,” Unalaq said.

“Do you _know_ how to fuse with a human?” Vaatu asked.

“No,” Unalaq said, “I was doing what I thought you did.”

“Do you _know_ how to inhabit a human body at all, let alone without killing them?” Vaatu said.

“No,” Unalaq said, making whatever the equivalent motion to hanging his head in shame was for a spirit that didn’t technically have a head.

“Then _don’t get cocky_ or you’ll destroy us both,” Vaatu said.

“Then what should we do? What even happened to us?” Unalaq asked.

“When we fused I intended it to be permanent, so we couldn’t be separated as easily as I separated Raava from Korra. Our fusion was more complete than theirs, and I thought our minds were inseparable at that point. It appears I was wrong,” Vaatu sighed, “We were lucky enough to be separated instead of destroyed by the Avatar’s attack, but due to the extent we had fused, we seem to have separated into a human and a spirit without much regard to which one of us was actually supposed to be which. And I hate to say this, but I’m not sure what to do about it, but this pathetic mortal body only has a few decades of life left in it so we better think fast.”

“A few decades is fast?” Unalaq said.

“It is when you’re tens of thousands of years old,” Vaatu said.

“What happens if we can’t fix it?” Unalaq said.

“Well, then I’ll perish like you humans always do, and I suppose I might end up in the spirit world again or,” he paused to shudder, “be reborn without any of my memories and at that point be truly _human_. And you, well, you barely know how to move yourself around, so Raava will sense your presence eventually and easily lock you away. Hope you enjoy ten thousand years of confinement.”

“She wants to lock you away, not me,” Unalaq said.

“No, she wants to lock the dark spirit away. The light spirit cannot exist without the dark spirit, so there will always be one. And because I’m stuck in this lousy, glorified trash can of a body – no offense, former human – that makes _you_ the dark spirit,” Vaatu said.

“So I have all of your abilities, then?” Unalaq asked.

“Technically, yes, but it’ll be hundreds, if not _thousands_ of years before you’ll ever be able to master them, and she’ll have locked you away for good by then, so it’s best that we work together on this,” Vaatu said, “You were very connected to the spirit world as it was, so you’ll fare better than most humans would. I can teach you to inhabit the body of another being, and once you’ve mastered that I can hopefully teach you to fuse with me without causing any damage.”

“Alright,” Unalaq said, “When do we start?”

“As soon as this stupid body stops aching!” Vaatu said, “And fetch me something edible, will you? I don’t you what you humans like to stuff your faces with.”


End file.
